


Independance Day

by icarus_chained



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Justice League of America (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Apocalypse, Epistolary, Genocide, Insanity, Luthor is mad and magnificent and terrible, M/M, White Martians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-14
Updated: 2012-04-14
Packaged: 2017-11-03 15:01:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/382659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Earth has been mostly destroyed by the White Martians. This is Lex's last message to Superman, as he ... finishes the job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Independance Day

**Author's Note:**

> I'd forgotten I'd written this ...

Superman.

I know you have other names. Kal El, of Krypton. Bah. As if I would let an alien name pass my lips. Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet. Oh yes. I knew. You people keep underestimating me. Of course I knew. But I never said. Because that is not who you are. Not to me. Never to me.

To me, you have always been Superman. My alien. My enemy.

My friend.

Ah, yes. It is true. You'll forgive me for saying it, of course. I may get maudlin in the course of this transmission. It's only to be expected, as it is the last I shall ever make. I've just destroyed the world, you see. As you've no doubt noticed by now. My, what a view you must be getting from up there. Quite the firework display.

And now you are asking why. All of you, everyone you've managed to save so far. All our battered survivors. How many are there, now? How many left of the human race? I hope enough. With all my heart, though you may not believe it, I hope there are enough. I love them, you know. The human race. My race. I love them dearly. Which is a strange thing to say, is it not, now that I've murdered the majority of them?

I hurt, you know. It's so deep, now. So ... they will not let me go. They haven't let me go since they came, since they stole this world of mine. Inside my head, stealing my dreams. Feeding on me. And it hurts, oh it hurts. These Martians of yours, these white monsters ... oh, they are good at causing pain. You wouldn't believe the nightmares they've given me. Such visions I've seen ... and worse, the dreams. Worse, so much worse, the hopes. So many times, I have seen you save us, did you know that? So many times, I've woken from dreams where you take me from their grasp, only to find them laughing at me. Only to feel their joy at my pain.

Ah well. I let them laugh. They weren't to know. And it's all right, now. They're screaming in their turn. I can hear it. Maybe you can too. Certainly your Martian can, I'd wager. He knows. He sees. He can tell you of the depth of my victory.

I've planned it through. All of it. From the very beginning. They never knew. They never noticed. One of the benefits of being insane. I've been insane for years. I've cultivated it. You know that better than anyone. You've curbed the worst of my excesses, stopped me every time my carefully developed insanity hit a peak. I ... I don't think I ever thanked you, for that. You don't know how much I've needed you, through the years. How much I've trusted in you, how free I felt, knowing that no matter how deep I allowed my insanity to go, you would always be there to stop me from going too far.

Maybe you do know, though. You do the same, after all, don't you? Batman. The ring. You trust him as I trust you, as I have always trusted you. You give to him everything I give to you, all that perilous trust. I hope, for your sake, that he proves as capable of bearing your trust as you have proven capable of bearing mine. Thank you, for that, my old friend.

You may be wondering how I know he is with you, still. How I know anyone is with you. The world lies in ruins around us. How can I know anyone is still alive, still fighting? How can I know what you've been doing, how can I know of the refugees, the survivors you've been secretly shipping off planet in dribs and drabs? How can I know about the only good thing your League, all those other heroes, everyone left ... how can I know what they have given the rest of their lives to accomplishing? How can I know what you have done, your final, exhausted effort to save as many of us as you can?

Oh, Superman, my poor, innocent friend. I know because they know. I know because they are in my head, and they have finally seen you. They have seen you, and they are coming for you. But they will never reach you. Never, as long as I live.

Their weakness is fire, the Martians. But they thought they didn't have to worry anymore. They thought they'd drowned every fire on earth. And they had. They had. But they forgot one thing. One basic lesson every human child learns, a piece of trivia everyone on earth knows.

That the earth itself burns. Eternally. There is fire in its heart, this planet of ours. Fire that cannot be put out. Fire that can be released, if one is willing to pay the cost.

I am.

But then, you knew that. You have always known it, even if you have never understood it. You have never understood why a human should be so willing to destroy other humans, to destroy his own race, the race he professes to love. You have never understood, Superman. In that, you are so very alien.

The one thing humanity has always been good at, above everything else, is destroying itself. We have made such a grand career out of it, such a history! You've seen it. You know it. Everyone does. But so many refuse to embrace it. To embrace what we are.

We are human. We are vicious, cruel, thoughtless, self-destructive beings. Even those you value. Even those you trust. Your Batman. Doesn't he throw everything of himself into his cause? Doesn't he bring himself to the brink of destruction, time and again? Don't all of them, all the ones you trust to stand beside you, all those who dare stand as equals among beings of your power?

They are your equals, Superman. As am I. In our ways, we have embraced our truth. That humanity will not bow. That humanity will fight for every last breath. That humanity will never, ever surrender, not to the likes of these. Not to aliens. We will destroy ourselves first. For freedom. For pride. We will die before we bow. Every last one of us.

Isn't that why you loved us? All those years you fought for us, fought beside us, didn't you love us for that? Didn't you give everything you had and more, because of it. Because you saw what we were willing to give to be free.

We will be free, my friend. Earth will be free.

They are screaming, you know. The Martians. They can't get out. The satellites have done their work, locking them in. Us too, but that hardly matters anymore. They are screaming, and my people are screaming too. Can you hear it, up there? Can you hear them screaming as the ground is ripped from beneath their feet, as the air around them burns, as the earth tears itself apart? But it's getting quieter, now. It's moving around the world, and the silence is following it. I can feel the Martian minds disappearing in its wake.

My enemies are dying, Superman. They are dying.

Forgive me. It fills my mind. I did not mean to say it. I know it hurts you, to know we are dying. Even me, I fancy. I dare to hope, anyway. Even now, even with this, I dare to hope you might mourn me. I dare to hope that, even if you hate me, even if you can never understand, some part of you will still grieve for me.

I think you may be the only person left who might.

I left it as long as I could, Superman. This last act, this final bow. I let you fight as long as I could, let you and your heroes save as many as possible. I need you to believe that. I don't want us to die. Not entirely. I want ... I want humanity to continue. I want there to be some shred, some remnant of our race. Aliens, to wander the universe. Believe me, the irony is killing me. Actually, the heat is killing me, but after freezing for years, I can't seem to mind too much.

Take care of them for me. My friend. Superman. All those that are left. All those you saved. You know what it is to be an alien, to have lost your race, to be alone on a world not your own. I've hated you for it, scorned you for it ... and maybe that's why I'm still here. Maybe that's why I never tried to escape, never tried to let you save me. Call it pride. Call it hubris. But I want to die a human, not an alien. I want to die on earth, if I have to die at all. And I do. I do have to die.

It's silent, now. The clock's ticking on the coup de grace. My crescendo. Everything up to now ... it was a warning. My last little gloat. I wanted them to know, you see. I wanted the Martians to know what was coming, what a human could do. I wanted them to understand our pride.

We are dying. We are dead already. And soon, oh, so very soon, our enemies will join us. They'll not follow you. They will never attack you again.

We are dying, Superman. Make it mean something. I'm trusting you, trusting all of you, to make it mean something. To see to it that humanity survives. Those of you that are human, I want you to live, or die trying. Batman. Bruce. The rest of you. And those that aren't ...

Look after them for me. Please. I never thought I would say that word to you, but please.

It's beginning. I can feel the tremors. It's a wonder I can feel anything at all, now, but I do. I'm looking around me, Superman. At my enemies, dead. At my people, dead. I'm looking at the ruins of my world, a world I have destroyed with my own hands.

And I'm laughing. Because I've won. Because you are alive. Because humanity survives. Because we humans will die before we bow to anyone.

And sometimes, we die so that no-one else will have to bow either.

This is it. Truth, justice, the American way. You'd be surprised, I think, how much those words really mean to me. This, here and now, is our last celebration. Our 4th of July. Our Independance Day. Make it count, damn you!

I love you. You know that, I think. I trust you, more than any other. And I am glad, truly glad, that this once I may give my life for yours. I am looking up, this minute. At the stars. At you, in your satellite. Alive. Free. I am looking up, as the world burns around me. And I have never been so happy in my life.

I love you, my friend. Take care of them. For me. For earth. For everything we've ever meant to you.

I love you.

Lex.


End file.
